Hayley and Eric

How We Met

We met on a whim at my childhood house. My brother and his girlfriend at the time just had a baby two weeks prior and had a few people over to visit. I had just gotten home from work and my brother invited me inside to see my niece and to meet his friends, one of which was Eric. A week or so later after we first “initially” met, he added me as a friend on Facebook, and starting chatting on there for about a week. We then took a small two-month break from talking and got to talking again in April of 2015. We were “talking” and getting to know each other for 2 months before we officially started dating. He moved to his first apartment on his birthday in June and had a housewarming party the night after. Everyone was gathered around the bonfire and he quietly asked me to be his girlfriend!

how they asked

He first started out sneaking into my Pinterest app a year prior and looked through all my boards to get ideas of rings and all things wedding related. He had told me that he asked my dad months in advance for his blessing, and of course, my dad said: “As long as you make my daughter happy.” After quite some thought, Eric had been secretly planning “Operation Engagement” for over the last 2 months. He texted my best friends for their input on different rings, and places to propose, got his best friends in on the plan, as well as both sides of our families.

Eric first asked his best “girl” friends to take me out to get my nails done. I, unknowingly, had talked to Eric about getting my nails done before any engagement pictures were taken about a week before. So then they came up with a plan for a family and friends cookout at our house. His friends texted me and wanted to have a girls lunch before the cookout that Saturday. So we ended up grabbing a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant 2 minutes away from the proposal site right on the boardwalk of North Beach.

After we finished eating, we start walking down the boardwalk to “walk-off” the food we just ate. As we were approaching, I glance over and see him standing in the middle of the gazebo just waiting for us. He pointed over at me and waved me over. I was in complete shock already. I thought he was at home firing up the grill for the cookout. Two seconds rolled by and he started his personal speech. He had nothing prepared but wanted to express his feelings for me.

The only words I could hear were “Soulmate” and “will you.” All the other words were a complete blur. I was focused solely on him. He then gets on one knee and proposes in front of his and my family. I didn’t notice any of my family sitting there until he pointed at them. My body was shaking because of the nerves and excitement. I was caught completely by surprise and I loved every second of it!